There is an extraordinary range of material in this anthology. Lincoln's Gettysburg address is here and so too is a contemporary account of a visit from the Ku Klux Klan. The primary sources reproduced are both visual and written, and the secondary sources present a remarkable breadth and quality of relevant scholarship. The book encourages its readers to "listen in" and make sense of the conversations of historians-and to join them by interpreting material related to their arguments.
Each section begins with a preface that pulls together secondary and primary sources, and introductions to the primary sources Web that will offer further avenues for exploration. Primary documents such as poetry, short stories, editorials, newspaper articles, speeches, illustrations, and political cartoons, as well as more personal documents like letters and diary entries, round out each section. Bibliographies and a timeline are also included, making this an authoritative, easy-to-use primer on the best research and writings about the American Civil War and Reconstruction.